Ideal Reader Information

This is my research on my ideal reader. This information is from YouGov profiler  in which they ask others question and create a profile then put all these together to make one average profile for a particular topic. My chosen profiler was under 'Kerrang Magazine'. Basically this is who is most likely to read the magazine etc etc.
Age: 18-24
Gender: Male
Monthly Spare: Less than £125
Typical profession: Entertainment 
Favourite food: Hamburgers
Car/Mode of transport: Renault
TV shows: Supernatural/The walking dead
Favourite Music: Foo Fighters
Sport: Basketball/Boxing
Online: 50+ hours
Favourite activities: Video games/Playing instruments
Where they like to shop: Asda
Favourite Movies: Saw (horror)
Interests: Music/Movies
Social Grade: C2DE

Questionnaire analysis

This is my analysis for the questionnaire previously posted to my blog. For this analysis I decided to keep it simple by only using bar charts. This is because using different formats looks messy and takes a certain professional theme from the analysis. Here I will analyse the results and why I go these results.
Q1.




















This was question 1 of my analysis. It was to determine which gender I was going to target specifically. Knowing this information would help me determine the features and the content of the magazine as I would have to include a variety for both gender. Based upon this graph its hard to try please one gender so I think it may be wise to include a range for both genders. This may be things such as including female artists and male artists and freebies that will suit both genders, such as iTunes vouchers. Considering the majority of my audience I thought was going to be female it was a surprise to see more men taking this survey. Although I shared this questionnaire via social media websites which would open up a wider range of gender ratio. This is better for me when constructing the magazine as it means I can add a bigger range of features to my magazine.


Q2.

This question was to determine the age of people I am basing the content of the magazine upon. I shared the bulk of the survey collectors to my school peers which is why it comes as no surprise that 76.19% is aged between 13 - 18. This means that my content will have to be suitable for a more younger age, for example featuring artists that particularly appeal to a younger audience of both genders. This is important to know when constructing my magazine because it helps to narrow down on the content and features I will include. The reason I chose these particular ages was because each range I featured normally have the same kind of interest and hobbies.



Q3.

This question was very important as it would establish the basis of my magazine. Genre is what determines each music magazine so understanding which genre my target audience was more interested in. The results of this question are a little different because although pop received most votes indie and rock combined received more which to me are very similar genres and considering they are both my favourite I have decided to combine the 2 genres in the magazine. This may seem unfair and may be a bad decision but I am confident that the majority of those taking the survey and choose the 2 genres will be interested. Now that I know which genres I will use I can decide on what kind of artists to feature in the magazine and can get a very rough idea of a basic colour scheme (black).



Q4.

This question was basically to determine whether or not I would have an audience that was interested in buying my magazine. 71.43%  said Yes which is good because now I know I have some sort of audience to target. This is important as I need a market audience to sell my magazine to.





Q5.

Question 5 was to help me decide on the freebies I shall include. It was no surprise that iTunes vouchers received the most votes whereas Stickers received nothing. Of course the reason for this being that the majority of those answering the survey were teenagers. It doesn't take a genius to know that almost all teenagers have an iPhone in their possession. Although the majority of the survey was answered by teenagers it can be appealing to adults two considering about 16% of the worlds population owns an iPhone not just teenagers. Freebies are important in a magazine because they entice sales and now a days people love freebies. iTunes vouchers alone should attract a bigger market for my magazine.



Q6.

The colour scheme of a magazine accommodates the house style of that magazine and also particularly in music magazines the colour scheme connotates hidden messages or meanings from certain magazines. From the survey answer to the left we can see that red was most voted for and black was directly behind in second place. These colours also back up my choice of genre for the magazine, black and red are both dark colours that are mainly associated with rock when it comes to music magazines (Q). I personally like these colours also which is why I will use them in my magazine. White and blue where also highly chosen in comparison to others so I will incorporate these 2 colours into my magazine along with the other 2.




Q7.                                                                                    

Question 7 was among the top 3 most important questions asked in this survey as it gives me an insight as to what my readers actually want to read. There is no point in making a magazine that people arent interested in. For this question I give the option of multiple choice so that people could choose as much as they want. In doing so I can include everything or only one thing, either way it gives the readers what they want. The biggest recipient of votes was ''upcoming tours...'. This means I will have to do extensive research to find all the information and dates for my readers. Things such as this is included in every major music magazine which means I will have similar traits to professional music magazines. Also an optional feature of top 10 music charts was also a high recipient of votes. I am thinking of also adding an editorial to familiarise readers to who I am.





Q8.

Question 8 also was very very important. Knowing what your audience wants featured on the front cover(image) is essential to gaining readers. This is the first thing anyone will see when looking at the magazine or any magazine for that matter which is why it is essential I know what the audience want. It comes as no surprise that both options of famous band or singer were the highest voted. The reason I included such a varied set of choices was so that I could understand what the audience want to a certain extent. Both options that include the word 'Famous' share a total percentage of 47.62% out of 100% that's a major percentage when in comparison with 'Upcoming popular band' that received no votes (0%).





Q9.

Finally I wanted to know what entices people to buy a magazine. Personally I can say it would have to be freebies and the main image. From the results you can see that both these two received equal percentages of 52.38%. That means 11 votes each. As I previously mentioned the main image is important but so are freebies. Getting free stuff, isn't that everyone's goal. Since I asked what freebies my audience would like at this question confirms that freebies entice them to buy a magazine this all works in my favour as I now know what they want.
Overall I think this survey has give me an extra step forward in understanding my target audience and helping me determine what they want in a magazine.

Sharing Questionnaire via Social Media

To gain more and more responses I decided to share my survey on social media websites. This open up a wider range of responses and of course more responses. Along with sharing it via Blogger I also shared my Survey via Twitter and Facebook.

Target Audience Research Questionnaire

This is the questionnaire I created to establish what my target audience expect from my magazine and to help me build a rough idea of what mymagazine should look like. I used SurveyMonkey to create this survey and I am going to collect responses from Facebook, Email and of course this post.

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Extensive Research

Here I will post the top 10 songs, top artists and top 5 music magazines. I will discuss which ones are my favourite and why.

This is the top 10 songs in the UK this week. Personally I think some of the artists in this list aren't as  successful as they deserve to be and some are too successful. The reason I think Taylor Swift is so successful especially in this chart is because all girls relate to her in her songs. To me number 8 uptown funk deserves to be in the number 1 spot. Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson. This song is good because it shows Bruno Mars as the laid back Jazz lover he is.

This chart is a mixture of artists seen to be the top artists right now. This is an all star cast full of people with the same profession and the same passion for the music industry yet they are all very individual and unique. They all come from varied backgrounds and genres. My favourite artist here would have to be Ed Sheeran. Simply because he is less materialistic and understands the music industry.

Here are the top 5 rated magazines. It comes as no surprise to me that Rolling Stone is number. Although I did not feature Rolling Stone on my blog I still did my research and they are great. They have really risen in sales, circulation and readership. This is due to their uniqueness and the fact that they aren't too mainstream.

Top 10 Kerrang Double Page Spreads

This is my favourite Kerrang double page spreads ever published. I particularly like these because they are significant to Kerrang's house style and as always challenging shared conventions among other magazines. For this collage I used Collage.com which I found is very simple to use particularly when adding in images because they have the option to search google and grab images.

Top 10 Double Page Spread Q Magazine

This is my top 10 Q magazine double page spreads. I like these particular spread because they are unique and authentic to Q's style. For this collage I used a website called Collage.com. The previous collages I made were done on an android app called PicCollage so I decided to change for this collage. 

Kerrang Double Page Analysis

This is my Kerrang DPS analysis. This issue is number 1541, one of which I have already analysed (cover&content). This particular issue is based on a Halloween theme. The software i used was a web page called Slide.es (previously used)

Q double spread analysis

This is my double page spread analysis. This double page spread belongs to the same content and cover page i previously analysed. For this analysis I was running out of ideas on what software or format to use in presenting my analysis. Therefore I decided to do some research on good formats to use. I came across a Website named 'Slide.es', this website is very easily navigated and is a great way to present any analysis. Safe to say I will be using this again.

My top 10 Contents pages

Secondly I had to chose my top 10 Contents pages. In this collage I included double page and single page contents to show the impact of both. This is my top 10:

My top 10 covers

This is my top 10 covers ever by Q. I chose these particular 10 because their style and I believe they are unique in comparison to most magazines. I previously used PicCollage to create a collage of my top 10 Kerrang. I used it again because my previous attempt was successful.

Q Magazine content page analysis

This content page was surprising when I first looked at it, most of the time Q include a double page content page yet this one had the same impact. Easy navigation is the key to a good content page and Q could not have made it easier to navigate. This is my analysis on the contents page, for this analysis I used word and input it here by using the snippet tool.

Q Magazine cover analysis

The second magazine I thought would be appropriate to analyse is Q magazine.  Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.
It was founded by Mark Ellen and David Hepworth and was first published in October 1986 by EMAP. Baeur Media group now publish Q along with many great others (Kerrang). The reason I decided to analuse this particular edition was due to its eye catching layout and house style. Q is an award wining magazine. Some might say it is 'The worlds greatest music magazine' (Their slogan).  The magazine comes with many great features: a review section, various artists and even pull out posters most of the time. The cover I chose to analyse features Foo Fighters and is the December 2014 edition. Q are well known for their magazines but most people don't know the amount of ways Q offer buyers to read their magazine. They have many media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter and also have apps etc where you can subscribe to their monthly edition.

Top 10 contents pages from Kerrang

This is my top 10 contents pages created by Kerrang! These content pages do not relate to the covers I previously posted. They are from the same magazine (Kerrang) of course but have no relation to the particular covers or articles. I also used Pic Collage to make this.

Top 10 Covers of kerrang

I did extensive research on past covers and issues published by Kerrang! These are my top 10 covers published by Kerrang! I used Pic Collage on my smartphone to create this collage

3 Things I like about this Kerrang issue

When analysing this issue of Kerrang I thought that there were aspects of it that I could incorporate in to my own magazine. I chose three things that I thought looked good or was a good idea.

This is the masthead featured in this article, I chose this because its unique in comparison to magazines alike. Its similar to most Kerrang covers apart from the green colour, which was adjusted to suit the Hallowe'en theme.

This may only look like a plus sign but this feature is in almost every magazine published worldwide. Magazines such as Q also include this plus. It is to add in more cover lines but its more appealing and stands out more.

This is Kerrang's editorial/advertorial section on the contents page. This is a great feature to include because it helps the readers make a connection with the editor and the magazine itself. I could include this in my magazine to make it more appealing.

Kerrang content page analysis

Here I have analysed the content page that belongs to the same cover page I previously analysed. This issue of Kerrang is the Hallowe'en special which made it more interesting to analyse and easier. As you can see from the top of the content page this is Kerrang's 1541 issue. Kerrang have clearly published many many magazines but the reason I chose this one was because it was appealing and looked different to their usual magazines.

Kerrang front cover analysis

In order to ensure the magazine I will be planning has a proffesional edge I had to analyse other magazines to get ideas and learn house stles etc. The cover I have analysed is the latest Kerang Cover. The software I used for this analysis was Prezi which made the analysis look better and more enticing to read.

Kerrang Research

This is my research on Kerrang Magazine. For this research I had to get a lot of information and determine which was important. As previously used I created this with Powtoon. The reason for this research was to gain  knowledge of shared conventions and an interest in the magazine.

Q Magazine Research

Here I have did some research on Q magazine. Q magazine are one of the biggest magazines in the world so I wasn't short of information. For this I used Powtoon.